those needs, focusing on positive student/teacher relationships
             In considering possible explanations for differences in performance and some of the strategies adopted by schools and governments, it is interesting to note some of the innovative initiatives being undertaken.
             The terms of reference for the inquiry into the education of boys are the social, cultural and educational factors affecting the education of boys in Australian schools, particularly in relation to their literacy needs and socialisation skill in the early and middle years of schooling and the strategies which schools have adopted to help address these factors, those strategies which have been successful and scope for their broader implementation or increased effectiveness (House of Representatives, 2002).
             Nobody seems to be able to explain satisfactorily what happened from 1990 onwards to assist girls, on average, to do better than boys and improve this performance year after year, nor why boys have begun to do so poorly, relative to girls. The gender divide holds true in many circumstances. It seems true from the evidence that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander girls achieve better in literacy tests than Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander boys. And it does seem from other evidence that gender, class and race compound each other, so that girls from wealthier homes do better than working-class Anglo-Australian boys, and boys from some ethnic groups (West, 1999, Teese, 2000).
             Here in Australia the current policy objective is to promote the interests of both girls and boys. At the national level, the focus is on ensuring that all students meet the National Goals for Schooling in the Twentieth Century, and in so doing, to achieve real improvements in students' acquisition of basic literacy and numeracy skills. The centrepiece of current initiatives is the National Literacy and Numeracy, which focuses on the assessment of students against national b...